Crude petroleum has traditionally been used as a primary source for raw materials for producing numerous specialty chemicals. Particular specialty chemicals that can be produced from the petrochemical raw materials include fatty alcohols. Fatty alcohols have many industrial and commercial uses. For example, fatty alcohols act as surfactants which are useful in personal care and household products, such as detergents. Fatty alcohols are also used in waxes, lubricating oils, cosmetics and solvents. However, obtaining fatty alcohols from crude petroleum requires a significant amount of energy and involves the use of a non-renewable energy source.
Further, even those fatty alcohols that are obtained from renewable sources, such as from plant or animal derived fatty acids, generally are prepared using a hydrogenation step. Hydrogenation is a costly process step but is utilized to eliminate the double bonds of unsaturated fatty acids. A number of prior art references disclose genetically engineered microorganisms that produce products including fatty acid derivatives such as fatty acid esters and fatty alcohols (See e.g., WO2007/136762, WO2008/119082, WO2010/075483, WO2011/008535, WO2011/019858, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,143,538, and 8,110,670, and U.S. Pat. Appln. Publ. Nos. 2012/0115195 and 2012/0142979. However, a need still exists in the field for improved fatty alcohol production from bioengineered microorganisms that is efficient and cost effective and further that is tailored for use in particular industrial applications.
Regulation of fatty acid metabolism to achieve higher yields of fatty acids and/or to maximize yields of fatty acids with specific carbon chain lengths would also be desirable for producing downstream products including but not limited to fatty alcohols, which additionally may be used as components of or precursors to compounds used as soaps, polymer additives, surfactants, and the like.